1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to flat screen autostereoscopic displays, back light illumination devices for autostereoscopic displays, and back light illumination devices for transmissive displays in general.
2. Prior Art
My previous U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,717,949 and 4,829,365 described autostereoscopic display devices that use thin, vertical, parallel light emitting lines behind a transmissive electronic display, such as an LCD display, in order to create stereoscopic images. There are many possible ways to create the thin vertical lines. Some methods are described briefly in U.S. Pat. No. 4,717,949. These methods vary in cost and complexity. It is necessary for commercial applications to use a method of producing bright, thin light emitting lines that is cost effective and easy to implement.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a simple, easy to construct, and cost effective means of producing thin, bright, parallel light emitting lines for use in an autostereoscopic display with illuminating lines and light valve.
It is also an object of this invention to produce a versatile illumination system that will allow a user to use a transmissive display in autostereoscopic mode and also be able to switch to traditional even rear illumination in order to use the display in full resolution two dimension (2-D) mode.
Still another object of this invention to provide an illumination system that can produce brighter back lighting for transmissive displays in general than can currently be produced by other common low power back lighting technologies. It is further an object of this invention to provide an illumination system for a transmissive display that increases the apparent contrast of the display by a factor of almost 2.
Yet another an object of this invention to provide a versatile illumination system that can rapidly change the color of the illumination source between three colors such as red, blue and green, and which can be synchronized with a transmissive display to provide full color, full resolution images. Still other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon reference to the following detailed description and claims.